Pink
by KitKatt0430
Summary: After this day, Len was no longer allowed to do the laundry. - ColdFlash Bingo Prompt O4


Summary: After this day, Len was no longer allowed to do the laundry.

_**Pink**_

In retrospect, Barry blames himself. He was the one who'd joked about always being the one to do the laundry. He didn't actually mind and he hadn't expected Len to take the joke so seriously.

But apparently Len did take him seriously and now...

Barry stared at his laundry basket in silent horror and then picked up an article of clothing to stare at his boyfriend accusingly. "You dyed my socks pink."

_**A Few Hours Earlier**_

Len could not find his black shirt in the closet.

Well, he could find a black shirt, but not the one he wanted to wear made from the extra soft fabric. He'd been especially sensitive to touch after the whole Oculus exploding thing and today in particular he wanted soft, non-scratchy fabrics to wear. He also had some navy shirts and light blue and a few green... and, actually, most of those were missing too. Which meant only one thing.

Wandering over the hamper, Len sighed in defeat. All his softest shirts were in need of washing; the hamper was full.

Well... Barry had complained about being the one who always did the laundry. As a joke, but it wasn't like he didn't have a point.

It wasn't like Len had anything else to do for the day. The Legends were taking a break and he wouldn't be headed back out into the time stream for another few weeks. So Len sorted out the laundry and put the first load - dark clothes, so mostly Len's stuff - in the washer. He set the timer, settled onto the couch with a book to read, and waited. When the washer noises stopped, he swapped all those clothes into the dryer and put in the next load of clothes. Brighter stuff this time - reds and brighter blues and oranges and... well, mostly Barry's clothes, really. Dryer and washer running this time, Len returned to his book. The load after that was the whites... which, unfortunately, was where things started going wrong.

Len had moved everything from the dryer to a basket to take to the bedroom so he could fold or hang the clothes as needed. He'd emptied out the lint trap too and then popped open the washing machine only to stare in dismay.

Everything was... pink.

"Shit," he whispered, realizing immediately what must have happened. Reaching into the barrel, he shuffled around the damp clothes and found... a red shirt. A red shirt blotched pink in places from the bleach. One of Barry's red shirts.

Staring at the blotchy shirt and the pink stained white clothing, Len realized that Barry was never going to let him live this down.

Still, there was nothing for it. Len moved all the clothes into the dryer, double checked the washing machine to be sure he hadn't missed anything this time, and then dropped in the towels as the final load.

He went to take care of the clean laundry in the basket, and tried to figure out if there was any conceivable way he could hide the mess in the dryer from Barry.

Unfortunately, just as Len was moving the towels from the washing machine into the dryer, he heard the sound of the front door of the apartment being opened. Eyeing the basket full of pink clothes distastefully, Len decided to just... keep Barry out of the laundry room for now. So Len walked out of the laundry room... immediately gaining Barry's attention.

"Hey, Len, still in your pajamas?" Barry asked teasingly, walking over to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. "Enjoy a day of being lazy at home, then?"

"Yeah, I'm nearly done reading Mick's latest epic parody." Len tried to subtly steer them away from the laundry room. "Might be his best one yet."

"I want to read it when you're done," Barry reminded him. "I really enjoyed the last one and... is there something in the laundry room you don't want me to see?" Barry had clearly noticed Len's movements and was now staring suspiciously at the doorway behind Len.

"No," Len said, shifting to stand between Barry and the door when the speedster took a step to the left.

"Really?" Barry's tone was amused. He took another step to his left which Len matched again. "Because it really seems like you don't want me to go in there."

"What would give you that impression?" Len smiled innocently in the face of Barry's skeptical look.

"Is this some Legends thing that accidentally got brought home with you that you're embarrassed about?"

"No idea what you're talking about," Len responded smoothly in hopes that maybe Barry would go with that explanation, leave the laundry room alone long enough for Len to maybe take a page out of Mick's book and burn the damn evidence, and then he could to a shopping run tomorrow while Barry was at work to restock the ruined clothing...

"Uh-huh," Barry rolled his eyes, but backed off, heading towards the kitchen. "So, I'm starving. Do you want to make something with me or should we be lazy and just order a bunch of pizzas for dinner."

"Pizza sounds good to me," Len declared. He did usually like cooking with Barry, but tonight he just wanted cuddles... and Barry where he could be seen at all times so the laundry room incident would go unseen.

"Our usual order then?" Barry took out his phone and placed the order.

Len relaxed on the couch, certain that everything was going to go smoothly and disaster had been mostly averted... and then Barry put his phone down and sped into the laundry room.

"That's cheating!" Len snapped, jumping up off the couch and rushing to the doorway.

Barry was standing there, staring at the laundry basket in silent horror. Then picked up an article of clothing to stare at his boyfriend accusingly. "You dyed my socks pink."

"It was an accident," Len sighed, giving up. He'd lost. To the Flash. Again. "I didn't notice one of your red shirts was still in the washer when I put in the load of whites."

The sides of Barry's mouth twitched, like he was hiding a smile. "And you dyed everything pink as a result. What happened to my shirt?"

Len pointed mutely at the basket, so Barry dug the shirt out of the bottom. "Aww, man, it's my Flash shirt. The one with the little lightning bolt on the front pocket. Captain Singh always looks caught somewhere between face-palming and hysterical laughter when I wear it to a Flash related crime scene."

Unable to help himself, Len snickered. Barry started giggling too. "This is hilarious. I'm gonna have to tell Lisa you did this." He disappeared and then reappeared with his phone, snapping a picture.

"Oh hell no," Len exclaimed, lunging forward and just barely missing his boyfriend. "She doesn't need to know about this."

"Maybe I'll group text the Legends too. Bet Sara and Mick'll both really get a kick out of this."

"Barry, don't you dare!"

* * *

Notes: For prompt O4 on my coldflash bingo card - "You dyed my socks pink."


End file.
